How Cloud Service Brokerages Can Help Manage Your Cloud Setup?

How Cloud Service Brokerages can Help Manage your Cloud Setup?

If you are a typical cloud computing client, you might already be using a few cloud service providers for your different applications. Your mail might be hosted with provider 1, CRM with provider 2, corporate website with provider 3 and business apps with provider 4. As the number of services expand, it now becomes a hassle to manage the different providers, different SLAs, their billing schedules, etc. This is where cloud service brokers (CSB) come to help. CSBs are businesses that offer intermediation services and add value on top of the cloud service. In this post, we will discuss how CSBs can make your cloud migration less painful.

The areas where CSBs can help:

Choosing the right providers – The past 5 years have seen an explosion in the number of cloud service vendors entering the market. This can make the task of choosing the right provider quite hard. A good brokerage can understand your requirements and build a list of providers that suits your needs the best. The requirements should incorporate your SLA expectations, price band and computing need.

Getting the best pricing deals – Many small businesses are quite unsure to put correct price tag to be paid for the various cloud services. Many areas of the market are quite opaque when it comes to pricing. This information asymmetry give a big pricing advantage to the providers. A CSB can help level the playing field. The broker might negotiate on your behalf and might also be able to get bulk discounts based on his existing connections, some which could be passed to you.

Managing the different services – Given the different architectures that are often not compatible with each other, it makes it really hard to manage multiple services. A good CSB might be able to provide technical consultation to help you setup the right infrastructure to integrate the different services.

Providing technical support – Migrating your applications and files from the enterprise network to the cloud requires a good deal of technical support. While some of the service might be provided by the cloud service providers, the CSBs could give you a more customized technical support that fits your needs.

Managing different billing – For small businesses it becomes a hassle to manage different billing cycles of the various providers. A CSB might provide an umbrella service and provide a single bill for the various services you use.

Questions to ask your Cloud Services Brokerage:

What is their technology expertise and how helpful can they be in migrating and managing your applications and services?

What are their affiliations with the different cloud service providers? You have to make sure that their choices work with your best interests in mind and not just the quantum of their commission from their affiliation.

Who are their existing clients and what experience they have in managing the needs of enterprises similar to yours?

What are the integration different services they provide? What is the price of each of the services?

Disaster Recovery Ok, ok – I understand most of you are saying disaster recovery (DR) is still a critical aspect of running any type of operations. After all – we need to secure our future operations in case of disaster. Sure – that is still the case but things are changing – fast. There are…

Cloud Architecture These days, Multi-Tier Applications are the norm. From SharePoint’s front-end/back-end configuration, to LAMP-based websites using multiple servers to handle different functions, a multitude of apps require public and private-facing components to work in tandem. Placing these apps in entirely public-facing platforms and networks simplifies the process, but at the cost of security vulnerabilities. Locating everything…

Identity and Access Management The identity and access management market continues to grow in a wide variety of industries of all sizes. As has been much discussed in many headlines, this is primarily because of three main reasons: 1) It is much more cost effective to implement than in past years; 2) Solutions can be…

Customers in the Cloud Global enterprises in every industry are increasingly turning to cloud-based innovators like Salesforce, ServiceNow, WorkDay and Aria, to handle critical systems like billing, IT services, HCM and CRM. One need look no further than Salesforce’s and Amazon’s most recent earnings report, to see this indeed is not a passing fad, but…

Password Challenges Simple passwords are no longer safe to use online. John Barco, vice president of Global Product Marketing at ForgeRock, explains why it’s time the industry embraced more advanced identity-centric solutions that improve the customer experience while also providing stronger security. Since the beginning of logins, consumers have used a simple username and password to…

Cloud Security Risks Does cloud security risks ever bother you? It would be weird if it didn’t. Cloud computing has a lot of benefits, but also a lot of risks if done in the wrong way. So what are the most important risks? The European Network Information Security Agency did extensive research on that, and…

Choosing Your Long-term Cloud Strategy A few weeks ago I visited the global headquarters of a large multi-national company to discuss cloud strategy with the CIO. I arrived 30 minutes early and took a tour of the area where the marketing team showcased their award winning brands. I was impressed by the digital marketing strategy…

The Digital Twin How smart factories and connected assets in the emerging Industrial IoT era along with the automation of machine learning and advancement of artificial intelligence can dramatically change the manufacturing process and put an end to the dreaded product recalls in the future. In recent news, Samsung Electronics Co. has initiated a global…